Yield to Beauty

 

10"x8" oil on gallery wrapped canvas (edges are painted)

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It has been raining for a long while now...and chilly for days on end. I'm told it's Spring...and of course this is normal for New England. 

I'm holding a memory of last summer, of every summer, when sweet peas bloom, fragrant and delicate. The warmth of the sun lifts this sweetness all around you. You can't escape it!

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it,"  observed Oscar Wilde.  I think he's got something there! Be good to yourself, friend!

Summer Medley, Hydrangeas & Sweet Peas ACEO Floral Oil

3.5"x2.5" oil on fine canvas board

Bidding starts at just $1

This summer was wonderful with all the fantastic blossoms.  This is our fourth year in our garden and things are really starting to look lush! The hydrangeas are some of my favorites- but this summer I started making arrangements out of them and adding other things, like astilbe, sweet peas, and Lady's Mantle- which is sort of a lemony- green that makes those purply- blues just POP! (Can you tell I'm missing summer?).

  

For those of you not familiar with the acronym ACEO, it stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals.  The miniature paintings are the size of a baseball trading card, 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  This category of art has become increasingly popular on eBay the last couple of years.  These can be displayed on their own, or with a tiny little easel (like the kind you can find in Michaels Arts & Crafts type stores) on a display shelf, or these beautiful gems can be elegantly matted and framed with perhaps a mat of 4 inches wide.  ACEOs also make wonderful gifts!

Whose Side Are You On Anyway?

6"x6" oil on gessoed masonite board

"Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."
- Vincent Van Gogh


This might be the last of the sweet peas, at least for a little while. It's been fun arranging the various colors we've planted this year, they range from dark blue to pale blue, pale pinks to dark fuschia & coral! The fragrance is what really amazes me.
I broke out the brushes on this one. It did feel a bit odd, as I've been using a palette knife for about the last 2 years solid. Just a fun bit of experimentation, starting with a flat sable brush, and then moving up to a big round bristle brush for more texture in the blossoms.

It's sort of funny, when I laid out the cherries, the stems were all pointing at each other. Sort of in an accusing manner, hence the title, "Whose Side Are You On Anyway?" Never thought they'd take on such personality!

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Price: $100 USD plus $10 USD s/h
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Sweet Peas In Cobalt Blue Vase, North Light Studio Window

8"x8" oil on gessoed masonite archival board

"The further I go, the more I see how hard I must work to render what I am trying for, that instantaneousness. Above all the outer surface, the same light spred everywhere....For me, the subject is insignificant. What I wish to reproduce is what is between the subject and myself."
- Claude Monet

Another nature filled day- sweet peas from the garden, studying light, this time as it comes from behind, through blue glass on a white cloth. There were enough flower cuttings to fill several different containers, I was scrambling trying to find a few more to fill!

Later in the afternoon, looking out my kitchen window, there was a HAWK sitting in my bird-bath! It was the oddest looking thing. After you've seen tons of little gold-finches flitting in & out of this same bird-bath, seeing this thing sitting in it, made me realize how huge she is! She nests near us, she marks her return each year with screeching & shrieking!

Ended the day with some home-made basil pesto with pasta for dinner. Basil right out of the garden, what a nice treat!

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Price: $135 USD plus $12 USD s/h
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Sweet Peas In North Light - sold

8"x6" oil on Belgian linen mounted on museum quality board

"Nothing can bring you peace but yourself."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Light and color...are there any other things that excite an artist so? If you've followed my work for a while, you know this is my studio window, facing north. I've really found it intriguing to study the qualities of light in this situation: the reflective light on a white cloth, cool and warm light bouncing next to each other, the variety of color within a shadow, a pale object that when backlit, appears darker than the light behind it. I can see an endless variety of studies right here in this very spot.

My husband planted sweet peas this year. We've never tried planting them before, as we've always lived places that are way too hot. Well, the fences are springing forth with 'gushers' of blossoms....the more you cut, the more they produce. We'll see how long this lasts, maybe another month?? Hope so. The fragrance is heavenly sweet! And I'm grateful that he's so sweet to plant these for me to paint!